The Writers' Trust Announces 2014 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize Finalists!

The Writers’ Trust of Canada has named the five finalists for the $25,000 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing. Now in its fourteenth year, the prize is awarded annually for a book of literary non-fiction that captures a political subject of relevance to Canadian readers and which has the potential to shape or influence thinking on Canadian political life. The winner will be announced in Ottawa on April 2, 2014, at the Politics and the Pen Gala, an event which attracts Ottawa's top players every year.

Penguin Random House scooped four of the five nominations, including Graeme Smith completing his hat trick of nominations for all three major non-fiction prizes this year (The Hilary Weston Writers Trust Prize and the RBC Taylor Prize in addition to the Shaughnessy Cohen). Dark horse Whatever Happened to the Music Teacher? How Government Decides and Why (McGill-Queen's University Press) by Donald J. Savoie rounds out the list. Each nominated author will receive $2,500.

The Shaughnessy Cohen Prize is sponsored by Bell Media and supported by the Politics and the Pen Gala. For more information on this year’s finalists and to download high-resolution images of the nominated authors and their books, visit http://www.writerstrust.com.

The shortlist for the 2010 Commonwealth Writers' Prize has been announced. The prize was established in 1987, "to encourage and reward the upsurge of new Commonwealth fiction and ensure that works of merit reach a wider audience outside their country of origin."